Houses change hands, tins get thrown out and colour names fade from memory long before the wall needs touching up again. Matching without a code is possible, but it is a process with real limits worth understanding before assuming a perfect match is guaranteed.
A sample is taken from an area that has seen the least fading, usually behind a picture, inside a cupboard or low on a skirting, and read by a spectrophotometer or matched by eye against a fan deck. This gives a strong starting point, but it is a reconstruction of the colour rather than a retrieval of the original formula.
Paint fades and yellows over years of light exposure, and different rooms fade at different rates depending on sun exposure and heating. A match taken today is matching the wall as it currently is, which may already have drifted from the colour that was originally applied, so a seamless blend into an aged wall cannot always be promised.
If the match is close but not perfect, a patch repair can leave a visible edge, particularly in raking light from a window. Repainting the whole wall, or the whole room, corner to corner avoids that risk entirely and is often the more honest recommendation once a sample has been tested.
Not reliably. Photographs are affected by camera settings and lighting at the time, so a physical sample from the wall or a paint chip gives a far more accurate starting point.
We work from the closest available sample and are honest that the result is our best match rather than a certainty, testing it before committing to the full area.
Sheen has to be judged separately from colour, since the original finish may have dulled with age, so we check both together before repainting.
Send us a small paint chip or let us sample an unfaded area on site and we will start the colour match.
A colour can usually be matched closely without the original code, but an exact, invisible match is never guaranteed.
Speak to a Hampshire commercial decorating contractor that turns up, communicates clearly and delivers a finish that lasts.
